retinal detachment surgery

[renecz93]

I am scheduled to have retinal detachment corrective surgery in one week and am nervous.  I am being told I will have the scleral buckle and the gas bubble.  A couple of the web sites I have seen say you have to lay face down for a week for lengthy periods of time (like all but 2-3 hours a day for a week). After my surgery I'm being told to expect a cataract and a second surgery to fix it.  That is all in my left eye.  On top of that my retina in the right eye is thinning and detaching, so I will need less invasive surgery after my left eye heals.

My questions are the following:

How long do you really need to lay face down over and on a daily basis?

How long do you really need to be off of work? (I was told between 3 and 8 weeks)

Can you read while recovering or do your eyes get too tired?  

Do I need any special equipment to lay face down for the long periods of time?

thanks for any answers.
Renecz93

[AnnaE]

Yes, Your doctor should give you althis information. They are nnot fond of talking, but you need his help.I could not believe that I got no help.I asked everyone I saw. One woman responded that she cleaned the office. Iaskedherif she had advice and she did. Since I got no help, I called EVERY day for a long time and asked questions.

Why are they waiting week? It is not painful, except for your mind and soul. You need lots of help andsupport. With both eyes involved, you need to ask the doc lots of questions, so that you know everything you can about your prognosis.

My doc would not let me read for a long time.

See vitrectomy solutions.com for equipment and info.

I hope everything is fine for you.

Anna

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

1, Varies from not having to do any head positioning at all if just a scleral buckle is done to several weeks if macular hole surgery with gas insertion is used.
2. Only your Eye MD surgeon can answer that.
3. Generally you can read.
4. Ask your surgeon. If the answer is yes you can use the search feature to read the many helpful suggestions and discussions by  people that have had that type of surgery.

JCH MD